Former South African President Urges Acceptance

de Klerk spoke to reporters in Maryville Wednesday evening before delivering a talk at Northwest Missouri State University. Within months of becoming South Africa's president in 1989, de Klerk ordered the release of political prisoner Nelson Mandela. The two negotiated the end of the apartheid system and shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. In the United States, de Klerk says the concept of a cultural melting pot is fading because of the rise in Hispanic immigration. He says a healthy society can accept differences in its members without giving up national character.